Didn't see as much of the game as I was planning. Was hoping to catch more of the 2nd half action. First I hear it's 1-0 Germany, then about 15 mins later it's 5-0!From a few comments elsewhere seems like Brazil were fortunate to be in the semifinal (?)I'm a complete football noob. However, I thought Germany were by far the better team. Disciplined and unselfish. Feel sorry for César - not saying he was perfect, but, I thought the defenders were supposed to like.... defend. A couple of the goals seemed really "soft"- appeared as if there was no pressure on the shooters. Perhaps the German attack was simply too much to handle?

Funny thing was watching the TV One "live" streaming with my Twitter open on a second monitor... Reading "Gooooal!" and seeing the goal five seconds later on streaming... Or a German friend tweet saying "7!" and waiting five seconds to see the actual goal.

Dingbatt: Kind of stunned by the magnitude of Germany's defeat of Brazil in the semifinal. Every time I went to make a coffee in the first half Germany scored another goal. Gave up and waited until half time.

I heard Lou Vincent organised their defence.

Sadly the thought did cross my mind (a fix, not LV particularly). I think you could expect a visit from the local constabulary if you had put $10000 on Germany winning by 6 goals. The guy who kneed Neymar in the back in the quarters will probably have to go into hiding.

It appeared they missed Silva (suspended captain and defensive lynchpin) more than Neymar.

Dingbatt: Kind of stunned by the magnitude of Germany's defeat of Brazil in the semifinal. Every time I went to make a coffee in the first half Germany scored another goal. Gave up and waited until half time.

I heard Lou Vincent organised their defence.

Sadly the thought did cross my mind (a fix, not LV particularly). ...

Mine too, briefly, but then do these guys who would all be on $50,000+ a week really get so greedy as to succumb to further opportunities of easy money?...or possibly more sinister motives behind it all?

Dingbatt: Kind of stunned by the magnitude of Germany's defeat of Brazil in the semifinal. Every time I went to make a coffee in the first half Germany scored another goal. Gave up and waited until half time.

Just watching the replay on TV one. The sound is down and no score on the screen. It is the second half, and if you didn't know about the five first half goals the game looks much more even. Germany ascendant still though. Until the last 15 minutes that is when normal transmission (goals) is resumed.

I thought the ref had a great game and should be applauded. Only one yellow card, and divers did not prosper.

Dingbatt: Just watching the replay on TV one. The sound is down and no score on the screen. It is the second half, and if you didn't know about the five first half goals the game looks much more even. Germany ascendant still though. Until the last 15 minutes that is when normal transmission (goals) is resumed.

I thought the ref had a great game and should be applauded. Only one yellow card, and divers did not prosper.

I thought the ref was good too. For some of the dives I wondered if they gave away chances at scoring by falling over where if they even half attempted to stay upright they may have had more of a chance of a goal?

So Germany played a 4-5-1 which at the end of the day was going to put Klose and Muller out on the wings in free space. A 4-5 can be used to draw the opposition into ones own half opening up for a fast counter attack down the wings (hence the fast pace of the first half of the game) but still allows for two tight lines in defence stopping the through ball from the opposition.

So I was really surprised to see Brazil play a 3 man defence (really only Dante, Luz and Gustavo I think), when their midfield were caught too deep in the German half by the counter-attack, they pretty much had no-one to stop the cutbacks and the crossover passes from the wings.

It is interesting that Brazil changed their midfield at half time and the game settled down for a while.

Once you get to about three goals really your game plan changes to play it safe don't take risks don't get hurt don't get tired don't get cards, do the basics well. That's what the Germans than did, and Brazil on the other hand completely lost any desire and started to think about the aftermath.

Unfortunately by doing that they made the aftermath a lot worse coz the Germans did their basics well and always had someone arriving to unleash a shot

TwoSeven: So I was really surprised to see Brazil play a 3 man defence (really only Dante, Luz and Gustavo I think), when their midfield were caught too deep in the German half by the counter-attack, they pretty much had no-one to stop the cutbacks and the crossover passes from the wings.

the europeans usually have a defensive system. the south americans tend to scramble and wing it on defense, no system. that's what you saw brazil doing.

if you watch the germans closely at the start, they played "everybody behind the ball" defensive system at the beginning before the blow out, everytime brazil got the ball, everybody ran back regardless of where they were. of course it relaxed a bit after the third goal, but you still see the systematic retreats